Friday, July 26, 2013

Concussion Webinar Can Prepare PTs for Fall Sports Season

For youth football players, more contact drills in practice don't result in less exposure to head hits during games, according to a July study in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering that was reported in the The New York Times. The study calls for further research to determine how reducing exposure in practice affects actual concussion risk for the young athletes.

This and other news on concussions as youth and high school teams begin practice for the fall season keep this topic hot for athletes, their parents, and health care providers. "It's not surprising that there's a youth concussion epidemic," said Ann Mucha, PT, DPT, NCS, in her presentation at APTA Conference in June.

As a follow-up to her presentation, on August 22 Mucha will explore concussion and outline effective multidisciplinary team approaches in APTA's webinar "Managing Concussions With an Interprofessional Team." The webinar also will cover how the physical therapist's role on core teams is quickly evolving, and why physical therapists are uniquely qualified to address some of the most prevalent brain injury challenges, including balance dysfunction, dizziness, motion sensitivity, cervical dysfunction, and deconditioning.